Letters from home, written by Abigail Adams,
proved a potent weapon in the struggle for free
dom. Thus she kept her husband, John, abreast of
events in and around British-held Boston while
he served in the Continental Congress. Sharp with
details, outspoken on principles, she sent news of
enemy troop movements while pressing for per
sonal liberties that most male patriots had refused
to grant-women's rights and freedom for slaves.
Foreshadowing today's Women's Liberation
Movement, she complained to the nation's future
President: "Whilst you are proclaiming peace and
good will... you insist upon retaining an absolute
power over Wives."
of Colonial America were conditioned to
independence and initiative. From Canada's
forest-shadowed St. Lawrence Valley to the
southern seaports of the Atlantic and west
ward to the wild frontier of the Indians, they
made homes with whatever came handy.
Up at dawn, growing and preparing their
own foods, spinning, making their own cloth
ing, and nursing their sick with medicines
from herb gardens and nature's field-and
forest apothecaries, most of them found that
woman's work, indeed, was never done.
At the same time they were "borning" chil
dren with the regularity of the seasons. And
where Indians raided or outlaws attacked,
they were capable of grabbing the nearest
weapon and defending their families. No
wonder many women were ready to give up
imported comforts and luxuries rather than
submit to oppressive British taxation.
Better, they said, to wear plain homespun
dresses than to flaunt gaudy, expensive ones
from Europe. As for British tea, there were
plenty of native substitutes-sage, currant,
strawberry, loosestrife, or plantain leaves
which they brewed and served as Liberty Tea.
In 1774, 51 strong-minded ladies of Edenton,
North Carolina, sent London a signed resolu
tion renouncing all taxed tea.
Other patriots in petticoats had set up tax
defying groups as early as 1766. Some called
themselves "Daughters of Liberty," a gentler
version of the often rough and ruthless "Sons
of Liberty."
After the war exploded, they
stood firmly beside their men.
"Even Weamin had firelocks," wrote a
British soldier ruefully of the sniping that
took heavy toll of the Redcoats on the road
back from Lexington and Concord. "One was
seen to fire a Blunder bus between her Father,
and Husband, from their Windows...."
As the conflict spread, women of all classes,
from work-worn frontier wives to mistresses
of great plantations, flung themselves into it.
"Handy Betty the Blacksmith," born Eliza
beth Hager in Boston, was noted for repairing
Rebel muskets and other weapons-includ
ing captured British cannon.
Esther Reed, wife of Pennsylvania Presi
dent Joseph Reed, and Sarah Franklin Bache,
daughter of Benjamin Franklin, led a group
of Philadelphia womeh who raised enough
money to make 2,500 shirts for George
Washington's men.
Throughout the Colonies women replaced
soldier-husbands in fields and shops, and
National Geographic, October 1975
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